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The trade late last week which sent veterans Alex Tanguay and Cory Sarich to the Colorado Avalanche basically concluded the purge of the old core, with the exception of Michael Cammalleri, who is likely to depart either by trade — be it before the season or at the deadline — or as a free agent once the 2013-14 campaign is complete.

Now comes what will be a long — and surely painful — rebuild, with the next big steps coming during Sunday’s NHL Draft in New Jersey.

As much as the teardown of the Flames required forethought, the real work involves what lies ahead for them.

Putting together the puzzle that creates a Stanley Cup champion is not easy, but the Flames fortunately have a template to follow. Just look at the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks and the Cup finalist Boston Bruins.

The Blackhawks have an excellent supporting cast, but the reason they won two championships in four years is the talented core which remained in place following their mini-teardown on the heels of the 2010 crown.

The Blackhawks have four top-notch, no-doubt-about-it top-six forwards in Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp and a perfect third-line centre in David Bolland.

They have two top-pairing defencemen in Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook. And they boast a goalie in Corey Crawford, who hasn’t yet reached the upper echelon but gained a ton of respect around the league for backstopping his team to the title and a new following of fans for his alcohol-fueled victory parade speech Friday.

The Bruins roster this past season sported true top-six forwards in Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Tyler Seguin, Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton. Their top defenceman is one of the best in the world in Zdeno Chara. And their goalie Tuukka Rask is also on the cusp of being among the game’s elite.

By comparison, the Flames have for top-six forwards … uh, well … maybe wingers Jiri Hudler and Curtis Glencross, but that’s a stretch, with Sven Baertschi capable of one day climbing in to that category.

Mikael Backlund is a solid third-line centre, possibly capable of being second-line calibre, while Roman Horak has made a case to be a legit, two-way No. 3 centre.

The blueline corps is certainly without the type of first-pairing players you need.

As much as Mark Giordano is a salt-of-the-earth person and should be the next team captain, he’s a No. 3 blueliner.

Third-year pro T.J. Brodie took big strides, but he still has a long way to go to be put in the class of a Keith or Seabrook or even a Kris Letang.

As for a goalie, we must find out whether Karri Ramo is now a NHL-calibre netminder after four strong seasons in the KHL before even thinking he’s a franchise goalie.

Not a pretty picture, is it Flames fans?

Sure, maybe 2012 first-rounder Mark Jankowski could end up a top-flight centre or John Gaudreau will be a scoring star in the NHL or Jon Gillies is destined to be a standout goalie or Tyler Wotherspoon and/or Patrick Sieloff are top-pairing blueliners.

But is anybody willing to bet on any or all of those players reaching such status?

That’s why it’s so important for the Flames to make hay during Sunday’s draft. It’s paramount they find at least one or two players for those important slots with their picks, especially the sixth overall selection as part of one of three in the first round.

The puzzle the Flames are putting together in the hopes of being a Cup champion is complex, and nobody knows what it will look like when it’s complete.

All we know is the Flames are well short of the required number of cornerstones and desperately need to start finding them in whatever manner possible.

Draft marks beginning of a tough road for Calgary Flames

The trade late last week which sent veterans Alex Tanguay and Cory Sarich to the Colorado Avalanche basically concluded the purge of the old core, with the exception of Michael Cammalleri, who is likely to depart either by trade — be it before the season or at the deadline — or as a free agent once the 2013-14 campaign is complete.

Now comes what will be a long — and surely painful — rebuild, with the next big steps coming during Sunday’s NHL Draft in New Jersey.

As much as the teardown of the Flames required forethought, the real work involves what lies ahead for them.

Putting together the puzzle that creates a Stanley Cup champion is not easy, but the Flames fortunately have a template to follow. Just look at the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks and the Cup finalist Boston Bruins.

The Blackhawks have an excellent supporting cast, but the reason they won two championships in four